High School Students Who Drank Alcohol are Vindicated

A year after 17 students from a Cincinnati suburban high school
were punished for drinking beer on a school trip to Germany, the
students have been vindicated.

The students participated in an exchange program in Germany, where
visiting beer gardens was part of the curriculum. Before the students
left, their parents gave permission for them to drink beer while
at the gardens to experience the local culture. The legal drinking
age in Germany is 16.

The students could legally drink in Germany, school photographs
of past trips showed earlier exchange students drinking beer, and
there is no school policy against it. At least 25 parents later
testified before the school board that they understood that discipline
for any infractions would be a family decision.

A court has now ruled that the school board can't apply its code
of conduct to the trip, especially after the students were told
that it would be up to the students' parents if they would be allowed
to drink.

The school board argued that its rules applied to alcohol consumption
on the trip because the students were on a "school-related
activity." However, the court found that "The record lacks
any evidence that the code of conduct defines in any way the scope
in time and place, or the beginning or end of a school-related activity."

"The parents clearly understood that when the students were
separated from the supervision of the school, they were solely under
the supervision of the host (German) parents" said the court.

School officials later decided that the students’ drinking
while at a beer garden in Germany was a violation of the school’s
code of conduct.

Two of the 19 students on the trip abstained from alcohol. The
other 17 were suspended. Two accepted the suspension but 15 appealed
and had their sentence modified to community service. However, two
of the students hired a lawyer and appealed.

The court totally reversed the school’s decision. Unfortunately,
the students had already been improperly punished.

The school board’s attorney said an appeal is likely. This
appears to be yet another case of zero tolerance out of control.